In April, the Xunta de Galicia approved the Research & Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) until 2027, aiming to achieve the mobilisation of public-private partnerships of nearly 5,000 million euros, with the dual objective of moving towards a sustainable and digital Galicia and a society committed to research.

This strategy maintains the major challenges of the previous one and will focus on the search for scientific-technological solutions for sustainability, on digitisation and on people in order to focus R&D&I efforts on food, health and ageing. Among the new features is the establishment of missions to support between 4 and 6 large transformative projects, the reinforcement of attention to SMEs to boost innovation, the development of the Galicia Brand in R&D&I and the promotion of the incorporation of women in innovation.

The new RIS3 foresees a public-private investment of 1,600 million euros between 2022 and 2024 to carry out the five programmes into which this phase is divided: Complete and transfer, Integra, People and talent, Innovate and undertake and Position.

Among the development instruments of the Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) is the Innovation Acceleration programme. The Galician Innovation Agency (Gain) has defined a roadmap for innovative entrepreneurship, focused on the creation of the Galician Network of Innovation Accelerators that will provide Galicia with a complete map of accelerators specialised on key themes and sectors for the economic growth of our community.

Gain has been collaborating since 2014 with different acceleration programmes promoted by public and private entities, providing innovative Galician entrepreneurs with a complete ecosystem of support for accelerating and consolidating innovative business initiatives.

Within this ecosystem of support and consolidation, depending on the type of project, its scope and stage of development, entrepreneurial initiatives have different programmes at their disposal.

The Business Factories are initiatives that offer vertical incubation, acceleration and consolidation programmes in certain strategic sectors for Galicia. 

CANCER INNOVA PROGRAMME - BUSINESS FACTORY MEDICINES
Programme promoted by the Galician Innovation Agency, the Kærtor Foundation, the pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and Lilly and the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer to join forces and pool synergies and experiences in favour of a programme of incubation in the field of drug discovery focused on the field of oncology.

BUSINESS FACTORY AERO
BFAero is aimed at the unmanned vehicles sector. Its mission is to incubate, accelerate and consolidate new companies that bring innovative solutions to the purchase, consolidate the business and industrial fabric of the Galician sector and attract national and international talent.

BUSINESS FACTORY AUTO
Programme promoted by the Xunta de Galicia, the Clúster de Empresas de Automoción de Galicia (Ceaga), the Stellantis Group and the Vigo Free Trade Consortium. Its objective is the acceleration and consolidation of specialised automotive projects and their transformation into innovative, viable and scalable companies that attract and retain talent, thus contributing to strengthening the sector's positioning and increasing its international projection.

BUSINESS FACTORY FOOD
This is an initiative promoted by the Xunta de Galicia through Igape, XesGalicia and the Galician Innovation Agency (Gain). It is promoted by the Clúster Alimentario de Galicia (Clusaga) and the sector's leading companies such as: Calvo Group, Nueva Pescanova Group, Bodegas Martín Códax, Kiwi Atlántico, Clavo Food Factory, CLUN Cooperativas Lácteas Unidas, Quescrem and Torre de Núñez, as well as other collaborating entities in the sector.

There are also other initiatives that offer multi-sector acceleration programmes. This is the case of Galicia Avanza, an acceleration programme specialising in the international commercialisation of innovation that seeks to promote the internationalisation of innovative SMEs in any field or sector that need a lever for validating, positioning and strengthening their competitiveness in foreign markets.